much like hof selction depends on what is to be selectd and what needs to be changed.. pen tool is rather exelent since you can have a miriad of paths and saves you from saving a selection.. plus pen leds itself to applications such as clipping paths for other programs I think because if you miss your selction and can't the path is prety much always there in the backstage area.. waiting to be as flexable as the image changes.

maybe you casn lock the layer.. perhaps there is a way to keep the vector locked I'll be getting my dang mouse today so i'll poke around inside Illy. but I feel that if a layer is locked it won't move or be able to be selected much like in photo shopp you can lock it from being moved painted on .. or you could just save the file twice on disk one zipped and one orginal ( or equivelant ) if they move a line after unlocking it t make a change and the file is totally ruined.. and saved later the one you've wanted to produce will be safe-ly zipped and away from uncontrlable fingers.. if your lucky

urm you can paste this into the same document - it more often than not makes a new layer - or paste into an alpha channel - the filter is applied to the selected layer.. or channel - and can be chosen to have blening options modes if it's a new layer.. etc etc..

so what is KPT3 ?

unsharp mask LOL

well if your image is flatened I don't think you can make a a part of it trans-parent.. it all boils down to layers. the eraser or selection mask will help you - Duplicate the BackGround layer - and trash the original.. your new "BackGround copy" can now be slightly erased to your desired requirements just grab an old image you like and use either a mask just make a selecion and when you are happy with it go to the Chanel and view the mask chan only and perhaps adjust the - when you find out wich way is the right way you can basicly Coose the level of transparency in the particular area you masked... exit the mask and DELETE it go a head n make a new layer and fill it white ( or something ) put it under the "layer copy to see the effect. or use an eraser @ 40% ( for example ) and -> try not go over a part of the image twice with the eraser <-

yes there are settings.. if you make your own brush and mae the setting to fade in 200 steps thwe presure and rotation information may not translate.

yeah its a bit funny when the time gaps between frames are processed slowly.. or don't quite Loop like you want them too.. http://www.geocities.com/karosnikov1/images/sub.gif

if you want your text to be in pixel size or Point size.. a pixel is a pixel.. .. pbut the point scale is 72 per inch .. the resolution can be changed try the above examples, or change the tex preferences to PIXEL sixe instead of point size ( if this works )

um if you draw the entire document with paths ( layer masks you can export them to illustrator... I suppose depending on the image one could trace over the lines apropriatly... Then export to illustrator ( or what ever.. ) eps may / may not keep the path / colour information haven't tried for a while. I think one of the macromedia applications ( flash ) can make a photo into vector.. and depending on the chosen level of detail you could get some funky pop-art style images. looks kinda like a posterise / median job but a fair few of the sharp corners are kept in tact.

replace " vectoer shape " with "text"

this style will also work on text, and I think for an image with a transparent beackground. ( of course the layer style I made in 40 secconds is ugly as hell, but it's now a new style I have - lol

post a image some time of your success... or even attempts.....